Unusual Power Up Problem. Power supply? Motherboard?

[Herse]

Hello everyone,

I have an unusual power up problem with my second PC. It was working fine for a very long time. Now it consistently will not power on in the morning or after being off for long periods of time (several hours). I have to cut power to the system (unplug or turn off surge protector) for a few seconds and then it will start up normally. I can turn it on and off no problem when it hasn't been a long time since last use. So, this is more an inconvenience, but it is aggravating me more and more. Here are the specs of the machine:

Inwin S500 Case with Sparkle 300W PS (FSP300-60BT)
Intel P3 700 (had been o/c ed for a long time to 933)
ASUS CUSL2 Motherboard (1009 BIOS rev.)
256 MB Mushkin 2-2-2 High Performance RAM
Creative Labs Geforce 2 GTS
SoundBlaster Live!
Linksys LNE100TX NIC
10 GB Maxtor HD
6.4 GB WD HD
Acer 40x CD-ROM
HP CD-Writer

So, do you think that I have a power supply issue? Or maybe the motherboard? Or since I overclocked for a long time, could this be an effect of electro-transmigration?
Thanks in advance for your input.

Herse

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Don't know about the "electro-transmigration" but you may want to try some simple things first:

Set all of your motherboard OC settings back to default.
Unplug all peripherals from your power supply (except fans and floppy drive), including your hard drives.
Remove all cards from your PCI slots.
So basically you have your video card, floppy drive, and RAM as the only things in your system.

Power up your system and maybe even try booting off of a floppy.

Power your system on and off and see if the problem remains. Hopefully not.

Then replace the components till the problem shows up.

I would continue to boot off of the floppy so your plug and play settings in Windows doesn't get screwed up while you are doing this (of course this is only important when you have your hard drive in the system).

 

[WW]

sounds like the leaky capacitor problem...I have the exact same problem with a two year old MSI board

http://www.overclockers.com/tips00140/

what's the warranty on that board? some asus boards had 3 year warranties....I'd send it in if possible...

 

[Herse]

Thanks BraveSirRobbin,
These are very good suggestions.
I have already stopped overclocking and reversed the settings for a while (a few weeks) to see if this somehow made a difference, but as of yet it has not.
Tonight, I will strip the PC down to its bare operating essentials, as you suggest, and see if in the morning it will power on.
The problem with troubleshooting in this case is the time delay associated with the problem.
Thanks again for your advice and I will post how it goes.
Herse

 

[Herse]

Wow,
Leaking capacitors.
Thanks for pointing me in the direction of the article. I'll open her up and do a visual inspection for anything obvious.
Thanks again and I'll post what I find.
Herse

 

[Herse]

The ASUS site says that all motherboards purchased after 11/1/1999 carry a three year warranty. I purchased mine on 9/17/00. So, this is good to know in case it is the motherboard.
Thanks again WW.
Herse